I have just wrapped up design work on a web service to cancel and refund F&I product contracts. Whether a refund is owed to the customer, from an early termination, or to the lender as recovered funds, it is in the provider’s interest to support an efficient automated process. On the lender side, it is also a compliance issue.

This job was rewarding for me because it completes the lifecycle I began automating, ten years ago, with electronic rating. MenuVantage was a leader in rating and originating product contracts, and many providers adopted our model specification.

I then did related work at GMAC Insurance, which was to include claims processing. Sadly, the crash of 2008 ended that project. GMAC also had the bright idea to check for an earlier contract, and apply the refund to the results of the rating call.

The industry has been developing web service support piecemeal. First, there was a need for rating and contracting, supported by companies like MenuVantage. Now, there is financial and regulatory pressure to automate terminations, supported by companies like Express Recoveries.

In hindsight, a savvy provider would have looked at the core processes and developed web service support for the whole lifecycle. It would look something like this:

Dealer and vehicle information ⇒ Return customized rate structure

Deal information with chosen rate ⇒ Originate contract

Form request ⇒ Return contract as PDF

Form with digital signature ⇒ Store in secure archive

Blank form request ⇒ Return blank form

Void request ⇒ Void contract, if eligible

Remittance query ⇒ Return remittance log

Remittance notify ⇒ Post pending payment

In-force query ⇒ Return contract data

Claim diagnosis ⇒ Verify coverage

Claim estimate ⇒ Approve/deny claim

Claim entry ⇒ Issue payment

Vehicle data from contract ⇒ Return cancellation quote

Contract data plus authorization ⇒ Cancel contract, issue refund

You could do one big API to manage the product from cradle to grave, and build provider portals and such on top of it. This would have the usual benefits of decoupling the back-end from the presentation layer, and it would facilitate integration with dealer and lender software.